Anybody ever interviewed at SpaceX before? • Hacker News Board

Re: Anybody ever interviewed at SpaceX before?

#21

Post by SilverBirch » Mon, Jun 26, 2023, 2:36 PM UTC

ETH_start wrote: post #9

jesterson wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> she said but we send people into space here All big companies do(did?) this - putting low salary and saying but "this is Facebook!" (real story), preying on young gullible people who think Facebook, Google or any big fish is anything worthy to be a part of.

Space is different in being an emerging sector where many of the potential business models are not yet viable, and which holds the promise of unlocking massive amounts of resources for humanity. The FAANG companies are also different in that they already generate massive revenues, so can't credibly claim they can't afford to pay good salaries.

That's just a question of stock vs salary though. If the argument is "oh this is an emerging sector we haven't figured out the business model yet" the answer is "Ok, well then I want to share in the upside".

Re: Anybody ever interviewed at SpaceX before?

#22

Post by speedgoose » Mon, Jun 26, 2023, 2:39 PM UTC

thewildginger wrote: post #14

metabro wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Senior sw make a base salary of 165k and principal at 216k. Do you. Consider these low? https://www.levels.fyi/companies/spacex/salaries/software-en...

For something as specialized as aerospace engineering software? Definitely yes.

Seems to be supply and demand thing. It’s easier to attract people to work in the space industry, or the video game industry, than in the ads industry or the data driven PowerPoint slides for the management industry.

Re: Anybody ever interviewed at SpaceX before?

#23

Post by sethgoodluck » Mon, Jun 26, 2023, 3:32 PM UTC

One of my best friends worked there for several years. Ignore the condescending and unrooted drivel in most of the comments. He loved it. But make no bones about it, you work your butt off like there isn't a tomorrow because the ethos is that there may not be if you don't.

If you're down for hard grueling work but doing so with a bunch of brilliant people and care deeply about the mission it can be an incredible opportunity and open many doors. If you're wanting to be chill and have "balance" it isn't a place for that. They have some of the best tech on earth and are among the most innovative companies in history. They work for it though. My buddy rolled out after getting married and having a kid. He has no regrets.

Re: Anybody ever interviewed at SpaceX before?

#24

Post by lowbloodsugar » Mon, Jun 26, 2023, 5:36 PM UTC

When I was a "kid" I worked 70 hour weeks making video games. It was a blast. If I was young again, I'd go work for pennies at SpaceX. It would be a similarly stupid decision, but I don't make good life decisions.

Re: Anybody ever interviewed at SpaceX before?

#25

Post by wanderingmoose » Mon, Jun 26, 2023, 5:50 PM UTC

thorin wrote: post #12

rurban wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sorry, but space must pay more, because the system must be 100% bugfree, and cannot be updated easily. on the bottom of the sea or on roads you still get live-updates, or at least car callbacks. you also have severe space and time restrictions, more than in a car or surgical robot. no agile for sure. there's not much room for agility or changing requirements in space.

Usually anything cool pays less: Movies, Music, Video Games etc and space is in that category for some. Also you don't work there unless you really want to.

My first job was at Industrial Light and Magic during the first star wars prequels and paid $11/hr, with OT after 8 hours, so about $32k/yr. If you didn't like it, others were lined up around the block.

I wouldn't do that now, but at the time it was like getting paid to attend a university that was waaaay more interesting than my actual university. The company was still very bohemian and you had access to the people that wrote the book on digital and practical effects.

There can be huge value, especially for junior engineers in having certain companies on your resume. ILM opened up every single door of every VFX or animation house. I'm sure spaceX would have similar benefits.

You just need to make sure the benefit is worth your time.

Re: Anybody ever interviewed at SpaceX before?

#26

Post by nagyf » Mon, Jun 26, 2023, 6:51 PM UTC

metabro wrote: post #6

b20000 wrote: post #2

recruiter called and offered crazy low base salary i refused to do coding interviews i have 20+ years of experience i offered to share my code or work on a little project offered contracting she said but we send people into space here a job is a job i can’t pay my lanlord with space dust

Senior sw make a base salary of 165k and principal at 216k. Do you. Consider these low? https://www.levels.fyi/companies/spacex/salaries/software-en...

You can get higher salary with writing REST apis in Ruby. And fully remote

Re: Anybody ever interviewed at SpaceX before?

#27

Post by VirusNewbie » Mon, Jun 26, 2023, 7:57 PM UTC

metabro wrote: post #6

b20000 wrote: post #2

recruiter called and offered crazy low base salary i refused to do coding interviews i have 20+ years of experience i offered to share my code or work on a little project offered contracting she said but we send people into space here a job is a job i can’t pay my lanlord with space dust

Senior sw make a base salary of 165k and principal at 216k. Do you. Consider these low? https://www.levels.fyi/companies/spacex/salaries/software-en...

That is quite low. Senior level at most FAANGs will pay quite a bit more than that in salary and the RSUs will be more liquid.

Re: Anybody ever interviewed at SpaceX before?

#28

Post by b20000 » Mon, Jun 26, 2023, 9:42 PM UTC

rurban wrote: post #7

hulitu wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> recruiter called and offered crazy low base salary > she said but we send people into space here This feeling is everywhere now. "But we send people on the roads here". "But we send people on the bottom of the ocean here". We are Agile and only see the quality manager when we jave an escalation meeting with the customer.

sorry, but space must pay more, because the system must be 100% bugfree, and cannot be updated easily. on the bottom of the sea or on roads you still get live-updates, or at least car callbacks. you also have severe space and time restrictions, more than in a car or surgical robot. no agile for sure. there's not much room for agility or changing requirements in space.

but it pays less

because people are ok with being underpaid in return for being able to say they work on space shuttles

we will all be fucked until we all learn to negotiate

Re: Anybody ever interviewed at SpaceX before?

#29

Post by b20000 » Mon, Jun 26, 2023, 9:42 PM UTC

comprev wrote: post #10

rurban wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sorry, but space must pay more, because the system must be 100% bugfree, and cannot be updated easily. on the bottom of the sea or on roads you still get live-updates, or at least car callbacks. you also have severe space and time restrictions, more than in a car or surgical robot. no agile for sure. there's not much room for agility or changing requirements in space.

The highest pressure jobs are at the bottom of the sea

boom crack

Re: Anybody ever interviewed at SpaceX before?

#30

Post by b20000 » Mon, Jun 26, 2023, 9:45 PM UTC

metabro wrote: post #6

b20000 wrote: post #2

recruiter called and offered crazy low base salary i refused to do coding interviews i have 20+ years of experience i offered to share my code or work on a little project offered contracting she said but we send people into space here a job is a job i can’t pay my lanlord with space dust

Senior sw make a base salary of 165k and principal at 216k. Do you. Consider these low? https://www.levels.fyi/companies/spacex/salaries/software-en...

a decent quality house in a te ch metro is 1.5-2 million

so you are looking at 14k per month in payments